posted October 14, 2019 The weather turned blustery today. We feel lucky to be at the end of our trail for this year. We spent the day at the cathedral, doing art, and slowly recovering from yesterday’s long trek.
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posted October 15, 2019 Yesterday’s weather bluster calmed to steady chill by this morning. We woke to 39 degrees and sunshine. All the locals had their winter coats on. We donned ALL our layers and ventured out for a morning of coffee and working on our sketchbooks. In the afternoon, already feeling sorry our Camino was ending, we walked the city in our backpacks until time to head for the bus station and Madrid for tomorrow’s return to Virginia. posted October 15, 2019 The bus ride from Burgos to Madrid is only a couple of hours. The scenery is beautiful, through mountains and desert. The bus dropped us at the airport and we caught a shuttle to the Ibis Aeropuerta hotel. It has almost 200 rooms and was a beehive of efficient, friendly service. We cringed when we saw the line to checkin. But it took only minutes for the staff to handle a dozen or so ahead of us. Our rooms were clean and comfortable. The bar is open 24/7 for cool drinks and bar food, which we were ready to enjoy. The dining room opened at 7:30, a wonderfully welcome time for pilgrims. In the morning, they start serving breakfast at 4:00! Happily, we did not need to be there until 7:00. We caught the shuttle again and were at the airport to begin the — always awful — flight across the ocean. All in all, in very acceptable ending to a marvelous time in Spain!
posted October 17, 2019 After a delightful night’s sleep at Pam and James’ home in Fredericksburg, we took off on Friday morning to have lunch in Williamsburg with our Camino mentors. Russ’ sister Phyllis and her husband Otis introduced us to the Camino in 2007 when they walked it for the first time. We thought they had lost their minds when they told us about their plans. However, their photo of relaxing in Molinaseca changed our minds and we too became Camino lovers. It was wonderful to share some time with them on the way home from this adventure. From there, we went to get our Stela. She remembered us and was happy to see us. Daughter Meg and son-in-law Steve loved for to pieces, and were not really sorry to have us take her back. She is a lot of dog, especially for dachsund enthusiasts. We had another good night’s rest and drove the 12 hours to Florida on Friday, beating Tropical Storm Nestor to Gainesville. A perfect ending to the trip!
We had problems posting using the app for this website. Therefore, we switched to a different app while on the trail. We subssequently updated this website, but in case there is ever a problem, the posts from Spain can to accessed via the button below.
After our lovely day in Conques, we took a bus back to Le Puy. The ride was less nice than expected because the bus was hot and the seats were uncomfortable. The bus stopped at about 10 towns and took more than 4 hours to get us there. We spent the night in a convent. It was our most Spartan accommodation and was at the top of 70+ steps, after we climbed up past the cathedral in town. Wow, are we strong now! Dinner at the convent was made and served by the nuns, who are from Africa. It was not very tasty and not much food. We did some sightseeing at night and had a fab breakfast in the morning....not at the convent. Then we took a bus and a train back to Lyon. We stayed at a surprising nice Ibis Budget Hotel at the airport. The rooms were clean and comfortable. There was a decent little restaurant. They had breakfast available starting at 3:00 am and shuttles too. We took a 4:30 shuttle and had coffee at the airport before our 6:25am flight to Paris, Atlanta, Gainesville/Richmond. Au revoir, Chemin de St Jacques. It is Friday morning in Conques. We are in another world...living on the fourth floor in an abbey, up a stone circular stairway inside a turret, in a corner room with two sets of bunk beds, an ensuite bathroom, and windows on two sides so it is bright and airy.
Yesterday evening we sat in a cafe on the square and watched the other pilgrims arrive in town. We had dinner with 30+ others in the abbey dining hall. At our table were two childhood chums from Texas who hadn't spent time together in 30 years and now are walking together. One is exec director of an NGO in Ethiopia where he's lived for 16 years. The other lives in Spain and consults on multi-cultural assimilation. There was a father and daughter who are walking together. She manages a restaurant at Disney-Paris we didn't get what he or the 9th guy at the table do for work, but we know they are can laugh and joke and be happy dinner companions. After dinner, we wandered briefly, went to bed early, and slept in late. After breakfast, we went in search of a good spot to sit and sketch. Later we walked around, watched the other pilgrims, and relaxed on a cafe/bar before dinner and an evening walk-about. Today is Thursday. It was our last day of walking for this year's Camino. We walked about 14 miles, from Golinhac to Conques. It was in the 50s when we started out from the chalet/cabin we rented at Pole Touristique last night. Too bad it was too cold for the swimming pool. They even would loan you a swim suit.
All day, the trail was through actively farmed lands. Farmers were haying. Tractors were all around. We were high on the lands and it was consistently beautiful. We had one long, relatively gradual downhill, one long steep uphill, and another long, steep, rocky downhill. We walked through three wonderful little villages. Conques is amazing but we were too tired to takes pictures today. Tomorrow we will hang here for the day and can send pictures. Now we are resting in our double bunk bedded room at the very top of the abbey. Today, Wednesday, we walked about 9 miles. It was much easier than yesterday, but still a lot of uphill. The guidebook rates the trail difficulty as green, orange, or red. We decided that it also needs a black rating for near-death difficulty. If yesterday was really black, today was only red. Tonight we have a chalet at a campground. Fun! |
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